Old Dominion Buys Land for Expansion

The Thomasville, N.C.-based company bought the land, which abuts Interstate 55 at the Tennessee-Mississippi state line, June 27 from Ferrell Properties.

The purchase closed a week after the city-county Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) approved a nine-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) program for Old Dominion.

EDGE awarded Old Dominion a nine-year PILOT to add 188 new jobs and invest $31.3 million in a building on the newly acquired land. Old Dominion, a less-than-truck-load carrier, said it had outgrown its current facility at 3050 Carrier Road.

According to an EDGE staff report, the project will create $7.8 million in new tax revenue for Memphis and Shelby County.

The average salary of the new employees will be $52,111. EDGE staff predicts the deal will produce $1.60 in tax revenue for every $1 in taxes abated.

The vacant land that Old Dominion bought has a 2013 appraisal of $270,400, according to the Shelby County Assessor of Property.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Daily News staff

Raleigh Village Sells for $2.3 Million

Raleigh Village, a 182-unit apartment complex constructed in 1974 and 1980, sold June 28 for $2.3 million, or $13,000 per unit.

Developed originally by Grant Investments, the property has a diverse mix of one-, two-and three-bedroom garden-style and townhouse units. Units average 932 square feet, and rents will range from $510 to $725. The property offers a full suite of amenities including a swimming pool and sundeck, washer/dryer connections in every unit and patios or balconies.

Raleigh Village is at the intersection of Covington Pike and Yale Road, adjacent to three schools, nearby shopping and Methodist North Hospital.

The buyer is Raleigh Village Partners LLC. The local group consists of Scott P. Ledbetter, founder and chair of Memphis-based LEDIC Management Group and an investor in a large number of Memphis and North Mississippi apartment communities, and Pierce Ledbetter, CEO of LEDIC Management Group.

The new owners plan to make significant exterior and interior renovations to the property. LEDIC will supervise renovations and handle all management and leasing responsibilities.

LEDIC manages more than 35,000 multifamily units throughout the southeast and southwest United States. LEDIC is an affiliate of Hunt Cos.

– Amos Maki

Komen Awards Grant to Methodist Foundation

The Memphis Mid-South Affiliate of Susan G. Komen has awarded a $75,000 grant to the Methodist Healthcare Foundation for the organization’s program, Navigating Underserved Women to Better Breast Health.

The program provides outreach and education to women, as well as access to breast health services, mammography screening, diagnostic mammography, ultrasounds, and treatment regardless of a patient’s ability to pay for services.

Paula Jacobson, president of the Methodist Foundation, says the project is critical in a city like Memphis, where a recent study showed that African-American women are twice as likely to die from breast cancer than white women.

– Jennifer Johnson Backer

Council Drops Inspection Exemption Ordinance

Memphis City Council member Lee Harris dropped final reading Tuesday, July 2, of his ordinance to exempt Memphis vehicle owners from auto inspections.

Harris dropped the proposal following last week’s closure of the inspection stations and word that Shelby County Clerk Wayne Mashburn will renew car tags without requiring the inspection.

Harris’s proposal for $115,000 in funding for a dog park in Greenbelt Park on Mud Island was tabled, meaning the council cannot act on it unless there are seven votes to take it off the table.

In other action, the council approved a planned development, mixed-use retail center on the southeast corner of College Road and McLemore Street in Soulsville. It also approved a planned development car lot at Germantown Parkway and Market Plaza Drive in Cordova.

The council approved the second of three readings of an ordinance to change provisions for repeated false home and business alarms. The changes include the option of putting repeat offenders on a “do not respond” list used by dispatchers.

Third and final reading of council member Kemp Conrad’s ordinance to prohibit pension “double dipping” by city employees who retire and come back to work for the city or other local governmental institutions was delayed for two weeks.

The council also approved two five-year Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division contracts with Texas Gas Transmission LLC totaling $69.9 million for the use of pipelines to transport gas.

– Bill Dries

Bigfish Agency Plans Event for Record Books

Memphis-based creative agency Bigfish has scheduled a fun event to land itself in the record books.

The late night talk show “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” recently set a world record for the largest toothbrush circle with eight people. Bigfish scheduled its own after that, beating Fallon’s with 11 people. Not long after that, a group from Kansas broke the Bigfish record.

So Bigfish is at it again. The agency is hosting a citywide toothbrush circle – a circle of people brushing the teeth of the person to their left – on July 12 at noon, in front of the I Love Memphis mural in the Cooper-Young neighborhood.

The event will be filmed and footage will be submitted to recordsetter.com. Bigfish is hoping to include somewhere between 50 and 100 people.

The group My Germantown Schools, which favors the formation of a suburban school district, will rally Saturday morning at 10 a.m. on the grounds of the Germantown Charity Horse Show and then move to the New Bethel voting site.

The hours at each site Saturday are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The weekday hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Early voting also resumes in Millington at Baker Community Center Monday, July 8 using the same weekday hours.

And early voting continues at the Election Commission’s Downtown site at 157 Poplar Avenue through July 11 as well.

The early voting period in Arlington and Lakeland was for one day, June 29. On that one day, 664 citizens voted early at the Arlington site and 465 voted early at the Lakeland site. Early voters from any of the suburban towns and cities can vote at any of the early voting sites regardless of which city they live in.

– Bill Dries

US Businesses Add 188,000 Jobs in June

A private survey shows U.S. businesses stepped up hiring last month, a hopeful sign for economic growth. Private provider ADP says companies added 188,000 jobs in June. That’s up from 134,000 in May, which was revised down just 1,000. The gain was the most since February and closer to the average of more than 200,000 a month that ADP reported from November through February.

Construction firms added 21,000 jobs, further evidence that the housing recovery is contributing to growth. And small businesses — those with fewer than 50 employees — created 84,000 jobs.

The ADP report is derived from payroll data and tracks private employment. It does not report government hiring.